Base SAS Certification
What is Base SAS certification?
Base SAS certification officially known as “The SAS Certified Base Programmer for SAS 9 credential” is a certification for beginners in SAS programming. This certification requires knowledge and experience of SAS ver 9.3 and is one of the essential requirements for many other advanced SAS certifications.
The certification tests the participants’ knowledge on these broad topics
• Getting data in and out of SAS
• manipulate and transform data
• combine SAS data sets
• create summary reports using SAS procedures
• identify and correct data, syntax and programming logic errors.
To earn this credential, you must pass the SAS Base Programming for SAS 9 exam.
Is Base SAS certification useful?
Base SAS certification is usually considered helpful in securing an entry level job in analytics. However, there is debate over how much useful it really is. The certification is a decent assessment of a person’s SAS programming skills. However, it does not cover a number of non-SAS related skills that are essential for a business analyst. Here is a link to an interesting debate on Stack Overflow.
How do I prepare for Base SAS certification?
If you are an experienced SAS analyst and want to get a feel of the kind of questions asked in the test, you can explore the SAS website (http://support.sas.com/certify/samples.html). There are only 5-6 questions for each certification so it is not a comprehensive list but it gives you an idea of what to expect in the exam.
If you need more preparation for the exam, the easiest (but very expensive) option is to take one of the many training programs offered by the SAS Institute or one of its certified partners.
A 2 week SAS training boot-camp by the SAS institute costs upwards of Rs. 1 lakh. It includes one complementary attempt of Base SAS Certification Exam (worth Rs. 9,000/-)
You can also buy one of the many books available from the SAS Institute that can help you prepare for the exam. But given the nature of the exam, learning by books only may not be the best option.
There are many online resources that can aid one’s preparation for the exam. One of them is http://sascert.blogspot.in/
How do I enrol for the Base SAS certification?
You can register online for the exam – http://support.sas.com/certify/creds/bp.html#t2
You can also register for the exam by calling this number – +91-124-4517160 (Monday – Friday, 9:00 to 17:30).
The exam fee is $180.
Will Jigsaw Academy’s Foundation course help me prepare for Base SAS certification?
Jigsaw Academy’s foundation course is designed to prepare people for the role of a business analyst. The course covers a number of things other than the SAS language and the curriculum is much broader than what is required for the SAS certification. However, the course covers many of the topics that fall under the base SAS certification syllabus. Many of our students have successfully obtained the Base SAS certification after completion of the Foundation course.
Read about our Foundation course.
